Five people, five names. Five people that Nathan was going to take out in order to make Voss come out of his damn secure mansion. The names were as follows:

•Elias Thorn, 72 years old, helped Lucian found his company; he was found not guilty of orchestrating illegal human experiments on orphans with the goal of testing out new pharmaceutical drugs; he was found not guilty of covering up dozens of accidental deaths in factories that he and Lucian owned; and he was found once more not guilty of laundering billions of dollars through companies that were tied to organized crime.

•Margott Voss, 64 years old, Lucian's aunt. She was found not guilty of the charges of running a human trafficking network under the cover of her charity work, she was found not guilty of funding private militias to enforce the Voss family dominance, and she was found not guilty of personally ordering the silencing of whistleblowers.

•Curtis Hale, 51 years old, Head of Security at Voss and many other companies. He was found not guilty of kidnapping and torturing Voss's employees who attempted to expose their operations. He was found not guilty of assassination and covering up crimes worldwide.

•Dr. Rowan Kestrel, 43 years old, She was found not guilty of forging death certificates to hide murders and cover up human experimentation; she was found not guilty of administering illegal drugs to force compliance of kidnapped victims.

•Jace Varlen, 28 years old, Voss's Tech specialist, He was found not guilty of hacking into the goals to spy on innocents to gather blackmail material; he was also found not guilty of having manipulated evidence to frame innocents.

But now that Nathan had taken out their lawyer, he knew there was one last thing to do to them. To make sure they face their justice. In his ways. The way of the flame.

72

Nathan got out of his living room and walked up to the nearest bus stop, gloves already put onto his hands, a potato bag in his pocket, and enough of that tranquilizer in his bag to knock out a whale in seconds. He had the address of each of his victims written down; he had gotten them from the case files. His first victim had to be Elias Thorn. He was the oldest. So this had to be easy. Unless this world got those stupid old men from anime logic going on.

The bus drive wasn't that long, as the target lived quite close to Nathan; he had, of course, made sure to pay with cash—how convenient for him. Definitely not a way for the story to progress faster. Nathan got out of the bus, thanking the driver with a small nod of his head before slowly walking down the roads that surrounded the house to simply observe the surroundings and the house itself. In other words...to planify his murder.

The soon-to-be victim walked out of their house with their wife, it seems... They looked straight at Nathan but were not suspicious of anything; they simply greeted him as if they were good people. Nathan simply nodded as he kept walking on the streets that surrounded them.

As he kept walking, a question came to his mind. Should he also kill the other residents of the house, like the wife? Did they even know the kind of man that he was? If they did, then sure... But if they didn't...how would he even make sure without making them see him? A letter, perhaps? ...What if he were to send them a letter that told them what Ellias did for a living? Yeah, that should work... He walked down the road up to the post office, where he grabbed a blank piece of paper and paid for it before walking out and sitting on a bench to write his message down, making sure that his writing did not look like his normal writing.

Dear Madam Thorn,

I regret to inform you about this, but I simply must. Your husband, Sir Thorn, has sinned more than once; he experimented on orphans and covered up multiple deaths. If you knew of this, simply call this number at the end of the letter. If you didn't, I suggest you leave him this instant and never go back to this house.

Nathan paused as he was about to sign the letter... He can't just sign his name... Oh, what about...

- The Flame Whisperer

Nathan folded the letter and put it into a small envelope before walking back up to the house and putting it on their doorstep before ringing the doorbell and walking out of sight before anyone could come out to check on the envelope.

The front door opened, and steps were heard before the door was closed behind them... Nathan peeked out from his hiding spot; the letter was gone. Good. Now he just had to hope that the wife was the one who saw it.

Nathan simply stayed put and watched, waiting for one of two things: a call or the wife walking out. He hoped to God it was the wife walking out; it would make everything so much easier.

Time seemed to pass so fucking slowly, but... The phone rang...dammit, did she know? ... Nathan picked up the phone and froze at the voice he heard. It was masculine, goddammit. Elias spoke roughly on the phone as he threatened to kill his wife if the man who had written the letter did not show up, because instead of running away from the house, she instead tried to confront the man. Nathan let out a small grunt before hanging up. Goddammit, this was proving to be even harder.

Nathan let out a sigh as he put on his potato bag mask before walking around the house to find a way to climb it safely, as he knew for sure that Elias would expect him to enter by the front door. As he climbed the house, he stopped at a vent that let in the air from outside inside the house... Oh? Nathan ripped open the vent with one hand and threw some of his liquid experimental tranquilizer right into it before closing the vent. This time, instead of spiking the victim directly, he decided to spike the air itself. He knew, of course, that this meant that he also would be affected by the tranquilizer, so he would have to be quick with this. Of course, the thickness of the potato bag mask was going to make it slightly easier for him...

He climbed up to the second story of the house, right up to a window that seemed to lead right into a bedroom... He gently opened it to make sure he made as little noise as possible.

He slipped through the opening and gently walked around the house and froze as he saw the shadow of the man he knew was Elias. He simply waited to hear a thump before rushing into the room and grabbing the unconscious body of the wife, leaving the unconscious Elias there as he pulled the wife out of the house before grabbing a match and lighting it before tossing it into the house and slamming the door shut as a ball of fire ripped through the gas that was made due to the tranquilizer.

Even though they were outside the house, Nathan knew damn well the heat was about to rise quite a lot, so he shielded the body of the wife as she was still unconscious. He waited for a moment before rising to his feet and turning around to look at the house. It was up in flames.

One out of five.

64

He quickly walked away from the scene so that no one could see him being there. He grabbed the address list he had in his pocket and ran toward the next one. He knew he had no time to lose now. Margott Voss was next. Her house was probably guarded. Nathan let out a sigh as he arrived at the house, unlike his last kill. He chose to be sloppy and not methodical. He approached the two guards at the front and slammed one of them onto the gate as he grabbed onto his gun and shot the guard next to him directly in the head before reaching down to grab the magazine and slapping it right into the gun and cocking it before shooting the man in the stomach twice. He chose to be this sloppy to send a message directly to Voss, since he was about to kill a member of his family.

He let out a small grunt as he climbed the gate; it seemed the previous kill had left quite the mark on him. As he landed on the ground, his legs collapsed under him...it seems the tranquilizer had finally taken its turn on him... He heard small steps go toward him; lifting his gaze up, he saw...a woman...his vision was getting more blurry by the second... He had to find a way to stay awake so this woman didn't get the drop on him. He pressed the trigger of the gun. A loud bang rang out, but the woman didn't drop. Nathan wasn't aiming at her. He had been aiming at his left arm so that the pain of the bullet ripping through his flesh would give him enough adrenaline to fight off the tranquilizer.

With a loud, vicious scream, he jumped at the woman and pinned her down before shoving the barrel of the gun right into her mouth and pressing the trigger. Her brain matter was projected in every direction; she was unrecognizable. Nathan let out a small grunt as he stood up, running only on adrenaline now. He was basically on a timer. He could not be methodical anymore. Thank god the victims all lived close to each other; otherwise, this would prove to be so much more difficult...

Nathan stood up and ripped a part of his jacket off to tie it above the wound on his arm to stop the bleeding, but before he could tighten it, he was pushed to the ground by someone from in front of him that he failed to notice...it was her! Margott Voss! He thrashed in her grip and managed to push her off, most likely due to the adrenaline. He quickly aimed the gun at her and...click...empty. Nathan did not even wait for his system to register the shock of an empty gun as he lunged at the woman and raised his fist high before starting to pummel her face with punches. One after the other, the woman did her best to fight back, but Nathan was simply physically stronger than her.

Two out of Five

He slowly stood up stumbling slightly as his adrenaline seemed to wear off for a bit, but before he let it all go he grabbed the second dead guard gun and shot himself again just slightly lower than the last, he then strengtenned the makeshift tourniquet he had made just to stop the bloodflow. He knew he was getting messier and messier but this was the closet he had gotten to finding his wife. He would not back down.

No matter the cost.

Nathan knew that his body would not last another battle, so he knew he had no other choice than catch a bus and go home which he did. Arriving home he quickly passed out onto his couch. He did not even manage to reach the bedroom.

However his sleep wasn't long as he was suddenly woken up by his front door being broken in and 4 steps were heard by him from the front door...two people? Nathan slowly glanced up from the couch which was hidden by a small wall from the front door...but he still saw them from his peek...it was them...They were sent by Voss himself to take him out perhaps...seems like the word about Margott went faster than Nathan wanted. At his front door stood Hale and Kestrel both armed with handguns.

51 43

Nathan slowly and quietly stumbled out of the couch to go into the kitchen as the two armed person walked right into his bedroom thinking he would be there...Nathan picked up his phone from the wall and dialed up Brooks number. He knew he had no other choice than to involve him. He was outnumbered afterall. But as Brooks picked up, a bullet wizzled past Nathan's head and landed right in the wall next to him which made him duck for cover, but thankfully Gabriel seemed to understand what was happening immediatly and hung up. Nathan knew that the best he could do right now was to find a way to stall them...He did not have much of a choice.

He put his mask back on before reaching into the bag he had thankfully kept on him to pull out his tranquiliser...he thought about throwing it at them but what if they shot at it and it ended up just like at the house he had burned down...Dammit!... He heard their steps get closer and closer...He didn't have a choice...He had to do it...

He slowly came out of his hiding spot with his hands raised but...they weren't even looking at him anymore...Nathan tilted his head in confusion as two gunshot rang out in his house.

Four out of Five

Nathan slowly looked around the corner, after taking off his mask and saw Brooks standing there. Damn this fucker came fast. How close does he even lives jesus... Nathan collapsed agaisnt him hugging him for support. Despise how flawed Brooks was...He did just save him. Nathan quietly muttered ''man you deserve a coffee for this...How about we go to a cafe tommorow?" Brooks let out a small confused laught and simply said yes as Nathan passed out.